


My Friend From Outer Space

by PigSlay



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Ableism Discussed, Alien Harry, Aliens don't follow human gender norms, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Aliens, Anxiety Discussed, Autistic Liam, Getting Caught By The CIA, Niall and Louis were Friends With Benefits, Other, Sex Mentions, Trans Girl Niall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-16
Updated: 2017-07-16
Packaged: 2018-11-21 06:09:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 18,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11351475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PigSlay/pseuds/PigSlay
Summary: Zayn's expectations of a quiet summer spent at his grandparents’ farm are rudely disrupted when a spaceship crashes in the woods nearby. Harry is a long way from home.





	1. Just let me know, I'll be out the door, out the door

**Author's Note:**

  * For [geewhizmo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/geewhizmo/gifts).



> I don’t know One Direction but I know Harry isn’t an alien (so he claims) so this isn’t real. This autistic Liam was written by an autistic author (that’s me). I think that’s important to say because I myself am really wary of non-disabled authors who write disabled characters so in case you yourself were wary about that tag, this is what you’re working with.
> 
> Update: THANK YOU to the anonymous person who corrected my use of Urdu in this fic. And just so everyone else knows: Daadi is Zayn's father's mother, and daada is Zayn's father's father. :) Thank you.
> 
> To the person receiving this fic: When I first received your prompts I was instantly like "holy moly" because all of those prompts are like nothing I've ever done before. It was all outside my comfort zone and I was EXCITED about it because I knew no matter which one I did it would be an ADVENTURE. I only hope I lived up to your expectations. Also, I was wondering if I could do (some of) your other prompts after this exchange is over?? Let me know in the comments if that's alright with you!
> 
> Thank you to Janee. You rock my socks. Thank you to the mods for granting me a 1 month extension - May was a mess. And June kind of was too but not in the same way because June gave me more moments to write/find inspiration in the vacations I went on. In May I just worked a lot. Hahaha. Thank you also to my beta-reader tumblr user shadowsandfreshwater. And last but not least thank you to the person who gave me these awesome prompts and let me out of my comfort zone in a good way. :) The REAL most annoying part was writing 'high school' as 'college'. Hahaha. Anyways, I love you and I really hope you enjoy this fic. <3

Summer is Zayn’s favorite time of the year; not only is Uni out for three and half months, but it’s also when he goes to visit his daadi and daada at their farm house.

He first started going there in the summer after his freshman year in college, when he first got diagnosed with anxiety. You see, Zayn lives in a big town and it’s very noisy and, at times, can overwhelm him to the point of panic attacks.

His parents and grandparents agreed that maybe staying down at the farm house for the summer would help. It turns out being away from all the noise really did help him unwind and learn some new techniques to center himself when his anxiety gets bad. Plus, spending time with family that lives so far away never hurts.

Zayn is out of college and in Uni now, living on a campus even farther away from them than before, but he still makes sure that he has enough money every summer to fly down there for break.

He parks his rental car in their driveway and is barely out of the car before his daadi is walking out the door and coming towards him. “Zayn!” she calls.

He meets her halfway, accepting the hug she gives him. “Daadi, you don't always need to come out here to meet me. I don't want you to get hurt and you know I have a key.”

“You don’t need to worry about me, I can still keep up with you young people,” she responds with a wink. “But anyway, come inside and tell me what I’ve missed.” He smiles and follows her inside, not letting go of her hand.

Once they enter the kitchen, his grandfather is there waiting for them. “Daada!” he says, running to hug him.

“Hey pota,” he hugs back, grinning from ear to ear. “How have you been doing?” He pulls back and then pulls out a chair at the table for Zayn to sit down on. Zayn obliges.

“I’ve been doing great,” he replies as daadi puts a plate of food in front of him. He thanks her. “I got an A in all of my lectures this most recent term.” Daada puts up a hand, which he high fives.

“That’s amazing, Zayn,” Daadi tells him. “I’m so proud of you.”

“Thank you Daadi,” he responds. The three of them pray and then start eating their dinner. They don’t really talk much more, except for his grandparents telling him about this family who moved a few houses away in the fall while Zayn was away at Uni – they apparently have a son Zayn’s same age named Liam.

“We were thinking about going over to meet them to have dinner and such tomorrow so that you could meet them,” Daada says. “Is that something you would be interested in?”

“Yeah!” Zayn responds instantly. “That sounds like a lot of fun.” Even though the whole purpose of him going here every summer was originally so that he wouldn’t have to talk to people other than his grandparents, the idea of meeting this Liam guy actually sounds pretty exciting.

He hasn’t made that many new friends in Uni – most of the friends he has there are friends he’s known since college – so having someone new to talk to intrigues him.

About two hours after dinner is over Zayn unpacks his blanket and goes to bed, vowing to unpack the rest of his car tomorrow. He and his grandparents all know it takes him at least a week to finally finish unpacking, but every year he still tries to convince himself that this will be the year that changes.

He closes his eyes and falls asleep to the sound of the crickets chirping in the night.

***

The next night, Zayn and his grandparents are having dinner with the neighbors they talked about last night – the Paynes. Zayn’s enjoying the food that Mr. and Mrs. Payne made so much.

The older adults start making conversation with each other about the weather or something like that, so Zayn tries to use the opportunity to talk to Liam, who’s sitting next to him.

“Hey Liam,” he says, grinning. Liam just keeps staring at his plate though. He assumes that means he doesn’t want to talk, but he’s not one hundred percent sure so he tries his luck again. “Uh… do you like living here?”

Liam nods. Well, at least that’s something. He still doesn’t make eye contact though. “Are you going to Uni?” Another nod. “Where?”

Liam doesn’t respond to that though, instead opting to take a sip of his water. Zayn breathes, taking that as a hint that Liam really doesn’t want to talk to him. He tries not to panic in the middle of this nice dinner and worry his grandparents.

Instead he just tries to chew down his sadness along with the chicken and just listen to the conversations his grandparents are having instead. Liam gets up at one point and makes a hand motion that his mom responds to with “alright, goodnight sweetheart”.

Zayn holds his breath when that happens, convinced that means he’s leaving because he doesn’t want to be around him anymore. Zayn just wants to go back to his grandparents’ house at this point because someone who he really wanted to be friends with, obviously doesn’t want to be friends with him.

When they do go back to the house, he has a hard time finding the urge to get in bed. It shouldn’t eat him up this much, the fact that someone he just met – if you can even call it that – doesn’t want to be his friend, but it does. Sighing, he turns off his light and forces himself to go to sleep.

***

Even though yesterday was a bit disappointing, Zayn’s still not going to let that keep him from enjoying his summer. He decides to use today to get started on one of the books he brought with him. He reaches the part of the book where the car crashes and he can hear it in addition to reading it.

“Wow,” he mutters. “This book has such realistic sound effects.” He laughs and continues reading another sentence before he realizes… _Wait, books don’t have sound effects._

He gasps, bookmarking his place in the book and practically running out of the house, slamming the door behind him without stopping. He’s worried the sound he heard means one of his grandparents is hurt, so he starts rushing towards the end of the driveway with a purpose.

He stops before he gets all the way there though, because he sees something a little bit off in the wooded area next to the driveway.

He gets closer and closer to it… then he gasps. That… that’s a spaceship. There’s no other word for it. It’s a full-on spaceship, crashed in the woods.

Just when he thinks he’s had enough shock for one day, he gets closer and sees a figure bending over and investigating the broken parts. Someone with brown hair, brown skin, wearing tights and a black bodysuit.

“BEYONCÉ?!” Zayn screams.

“Actually,” she says. “I’m not the real Beyoncé. I’m what your planet calls an ‘alien’. I studied your planet’s culture and I used the form of this famous pop culture icon because you won’t understand my true form. Is it okay?”

“Uh…” Zayn stares at the figure. Even though it looks like Beyoncé from head to toe, he can’t picture the actual Beyoncé saying any of those words. And why exactly would the real Beyoncé be out here when she should be on tour right now? So that only leaves one possible explanation: that whoever this is, is telling the truth.

“No, no, it’s actually not okay because I am a huge fan of Beyoncé and right now I can’t talk to you without bubbles in my stomach, so can you just like… change to something else? Please?”

The Beyoncé looking figure laughs, and Zayn blushes because it sounds just like the actual Beyoncé’s laugh. “Okay, I will.”

Just then though, someone starts coming towards them. “ZAYN!”

“Oh no!” Not-Beyoncé gasps. “I gotta hide. I’ll see you another day!”

“Wait-” Zayn tries, but before he can follow after them, someone turns him around. It’s his daadi.

“Zayn, what are you doing out here? I was so worried about you.”

Zayn looks over his shoulder and not-Beyoncé, as well as their ship, have seemingly disappeared. Zayn just shakes his head, not able to wrap his head around the fact that he just talked to an alien who looked like Beyoncé. So much for a quiet summer.

“Uh, I’m sorry daadi,” he says, returning his gaze to her. “I was just going for a walk.”

“Well next time tell me alright? Cause I care about you, pota.” She kisses him on the head and he promises to do so, going with her back into the house.

***

Zayn tries many times to meet Not-Beyoncé again since after their last meeting Not-Beyoncé said ‘I'll see you another day’, which Zayn took to imply they wanted to see him again. And well, Zayn kind of wants to see them again too to find out what all of this is about.

However, it doesn't seem to be working. His grandparents always seem to want him whenever he tries to go to the woods - and of course he's not going to deny them anything because they're his grandparents.

So one night he tries to sneak out while they are asleep, but Not-Beyoncé is nowhere to be found. Sighing he just goes back to his house, deciding he’s ready to give up on searching for his local alien.

A few hours later though, he springs awake because he hears someone knocking on his door. His mind immediately goes to the worst case scenario and he bolts towards the door. But it’s not his daadi or daada. It’s someone he doesn’t recognize. Someone with curly brown hair, bright green eyes, white skin, wearing a long sleeved pink shirt and black pants.

“Don’t stomp so loud, you’ll wake your grandparents,” a very deep voice comes from the figure, who then proceeds to walk over and sit down on Zayn’s bed. “Ah, your bed is so cozy.”

Zayn grabs the broom next to his door, trying to look as threatening as he can when he feels like he’s in danger. “Don’t you sit on my bed!” he whisper-yells. “Who the heck are you and how do you know me/my grandparents?”

“Zayn, it’s me.” Curly hair keeps pointing to himself as if it’s supposed to jog Zayn’s memory. It doesn’t. “Beyoncé. Or, not really. But last time I saw you I was Beyoncé.”

It takes Zayn a second to understand what those words mean, but then a light bulb goes off in his head. “Oh!” He puts the broom down and goes to sit on his bed next to curly hair. “What’s up man? Wait…” He thinks for a moment. “Man? Woman?” He’s not sure what to call this alien person really.

He – they? – giggles a bit. “No, no, on my planet we don’t really adhere to Earth’s concept of gender. I guess the closest term for it in your language is ‘agender’. Just use they/them pronouns when referring to me.” Zayn nods back to them, reminding himself to look up the term ‘agender’ later on.

“Anyway,” they continue. “I worked very hard to try to figure out my new form, studying human bodies and fashion patterns. What do you think?”

Zayn looks them up and down now and finds himself getting a little hot as he studies their slightly tanned cheekbones. “I… uh… I think this is an awesome form yes. It’s really… Amazing.” He nods, losing his train of thought thinking about how attractive they look.

They giggle again. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, no prob,” Zayn blushes after saying that. What an awkward thing to say. He clears his throat, trying to think of some way to change the subject. “Anyway, so now that I know your pronouns can I have a _name_ to refer to you by instead of ‘Not-Beyoncé’?” He smirks.

Not-Beyoncé thinks about this for a second. “Harry. Harry Styles.”

Now it’s Zayn’s turn to laugh, and he practically spits when he does it. “‘Hairy Styles’?” he repeats, still laughing. “You’re really gonna call yourself that? That doesn’t sound like a name, it sounds like a haircare brand.”

“Heeeey, be nice!” Harry says to him, but they’re laughing silently too. “You know, just for that I won’t change it. I’ll keep my Earth name as ‘Harry Styles’ for as long as I’m here, just to annoy you.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” he responds, trying to turn down the snickering now because he remembers his grandparents are still asleep. “So, speaking of that ‘as long as I’m here’ thing… What… happened?”

They nod, smile slipping a little bit. “I knew this question was going to come eventually.”

So for the next hour or so, Harry tells Zayn how they were tired of their home planet. They felt like they had seen everything there was to see there and wanted to see other planets for a change.

“Wow,” Zayn commented. “I can’t even imagine feeling like I’d seen all there is to see on my planet…”

Harry had just shrugged. “My planet has less ‘continents’ than yours does, I guess...”

So Harry took a spaceship and put it on autopilot without so much as a goodbye to the world they’d always known, figuring ‘autopilot’ meant they didn’t really have to know how to do anything in order to get there, the machine would do it for them.

What they hadn’t anticipated, however, was the spaceship couldn’t land itself. So before Harry knew it they were tumbling down into the woods here with no idea how to stop it. It stopped itself alright, but not in the way Harry wanted it to.

“Wow,” Zayn says now. “So has this crash landing caused you to not want to look around Earth anymore?”

“Of course not,” Harry responds. “But, until I get my spaceship fixed I can’t really do any of the stuff I wanted to do. Would you be willing to help me fix it?”

Zayn looks at that adorable pleading face, then looks at the time and is a little bit less mesmerized by that face. He is so tired; he didn’t realize it when talking to Harry about their journey here, but now that he’s seen what time it is he realizes how desperately he wants to lay back down. “Sure. Can I help you fix it when it’s not a*** o’clock in the morning though?”

Harry laughs, and that laughter is quickly becoming one of Zayn’s favorite sounds he decides. “Of course. Goodnight Zayn.”

“Goodnight, Hair Style,” Zayn mocks one last time, waiting until Harry is gone before putting his blankets over his body and going back to sleep.

He smiles in his sleep because he realizes he really did make a new friend this summer after all, and he can’t wait to see the things the two of them will do together for the rest of it.

***

Apparently last night when he was falling asleep sitting up, Zayn hadn’t really realized what Harry actually meant by the words “help me fix my spaceship”. But now, when the sun is up and he’s wide awake, they’re really sinking in.

“Harry, listen. I know I promised to help – when I was half asleep – but I… I don’t know much about technology at all,” he admits as he stares at the crashed spaceship with confusion and embarrassment. “Are you even sure we like, have the stuff to fix it on our planet? Are you sure the parts lost aren’t specific to your planet?”

“Well, kind of,” Harry admits. “But your planet _does_ have some similar parts that will probably work to restore it.” Zayn’s about to object again, but they put their hand on his shoulder. “Listen I know you’re smarter than you think you are. We may only have known each other for a few days but I know you’re smart.”

Zayn smiles, biting his lip. “Well uh, thank you.” He clears his throat. “I will, uh, I’ll try the best I can.”

“That’s all I ask.” Harry grins back, and somehow that charming grin makes Zayn think he can do anything as long as he has Harry to do it with.

Harry shows him the inside of their spaceship and it’s like all of Zayn’s geek dreams come true. No, this is not necessarily exactly how he imagined it when he was little watching Lilo and Stitch, but it’s still cool nonetheless.

Harry shows him where the things they’re supposed to use to steer with are – as well as where the autopilot button is – and where they keep their wulu (“that’s our version of food and drink”), as well as this very cool plant from their home planet.

“That was always one of my favorite things on my home planet,” Harry explains, staring at it and breathing in its scent. “My parent gave it to me as a present one year. It can survive for long periods of time on its own with no care – kind of similar to the cactus on your planet.” Zayn nods, mesmerized by the color of the plant. It’s a color he’s never seen before, and never could have imagined on his own. He loves it.

He doesn’t realize how long he’s been staring at the plant and trying to memorize its color until Harry taps him on the shoulder and takes him away from the plant to look at their other stuff on the ship.

The two of them don’t really get any actual work done that day, but Zayn learns more about Harry and their planet. Zayn likes learning about Harry, not just because they’re a freaking alien, but also because Harry is just a really cool person – er, alien – to talk to.

“Well, I better go back home now or else my daadi and daada will get worried,” he tells them now. “Sorry. But I’ll talk to you tomorrow I hope.”

“Nothing to apologize for,” Harry assures. “See you tomorrow, Zayn.”

“See you.” With that, Zayn heads back to the house just in time for dinner.

***

“Oh Zayn dear,” daadi says as he walks down the stairs to get some coffee. “The Paynes are coming over this evening!”

He almost burns his hand from how hard he sets down the carafe after hearing those words. “What do you mean they’re coming over?”

“I mean… they’re coming over tonight for dinner,” she repeats, raising her eyebrow. “Are you feeling alright Zayn? I thought you’d be excited; Mrs. Payne said Liam really liked you.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” Zayn murmurs, swallowing down his words with a sip of coffee. He decides that his grandmother doesn’t need to know all about his personal feelings on Liam though. It’s not her fault Liam doesn’t like him after all.

“Of course I’m excited daadi,” he says, turning back to her. “I just didn’t get very much sleep last night, that’s all.” She doesn’t look like she completely believes him, but she drops the subject.

He waits a few moments and then goes back to his room, putting his coffee on the bedside table and laying down. Just when he’s getting comfortable in his book though, someone knocks on the door.

He grumbles slightly, bookmarking his spot and getting up. He opens it and it’s Harry. “Harry? What the heck are you doing here?” He looks around. “Did – did my grandparents see you?”

“Nope,” Harry says.

“Then how did you-?” Zayn starts, then decides he doesn’t want to know. “Nevermind, come on in.”

He sits on the bed, leaving enough room for them to sit down next to him. He picks up his book, ready to return to reading and just have Harry chill beside him. However, he should’ve known better than to think that was a possibility with an alien, he supposes.

“Why are you so stressed?” Harry asks, making Zayn turn away from the book for a second.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Harry studies him for a moment. Zayn tries to ignore it but he can feel Harry’s eyeballs on him so much that he can’t focus on his book. Finally, sighing, he saves his spot and puts it down.

“What is it?” he asks.

“You’re stressed because you want to be friends with this Liam guy next door and think he doesn’t like you,” they state.

He tries to hold back his shock but it’s not possible. He can feel how big his eyes are as he turns away from them and takes a sip of coffee to try to calm himself down. “Oh yeah, and how would you know that? Can you like, read minds or something?”

“Not exactly,” they reply. “I can feel emotions, and when they’re very strong I can feel why.”

“That’s very creepy,” he tells them, continuing to drink his coffee. They just shrug at him like it’s no big deal. “And anyway, what of it? So what if I want to be his friend? It doesn’t matter anyway because he obviously doesn’t want to be mine.”

Harry scratches their head, looking confused. “How do you figure?”

“Well, I tried to make conversation with him but he didn’t make eye contact with me, or respond to me in any way except nodding sometimes. Then just a few short minutes later he got up and went to sleep.” He finishes the rest of his coffee. “Doesn’t sound like friendship to me.”

“And why not?” Harry asks. Zayn just scoffs like they’ve lost their mind. They obviously don’t know Earth’s social customs very well. “No I’m serious. Have you ever considered maybe that’s just how he feels most comfortable communicating with people, or that he left because he’s just used to going to bed immediately after dinner?”

Zayn rolls his eyes at all this. “Look, I know you’re trying to make me feel better, but it’s not working. I’ll give you a pass since you’re an alien and probably don’t know the social cues on Earth all that well, but can you please just… go now? I really want to finish this book and also clean off this random sweat that’s building by my eye.”

Harry frowns, but nods. “Okay Zayn, but I really think you should consider talking to him again when there aren’t other people around. I really think it would be beneficial to you both.”

Before Zayn can respond to that though, he looks up and doesn’t see Harry anymore. He shakes it off, deciding to return to his book and ignore the fact that he’s so upset about something so dumb.

***

That night, the Paynes come over. Zayn puts on his best smile as all of them gather by the dinner table to eat the delicious food his daadi made. Of course the older adults want to sit by each other, and Zayn and Liam are next to each other again.

Once again Zayn tries his best to make conversation with Liam. “So uh… do you like video games?” Nod. “What’s your favorite video game?” Liam seems to contemplate this for a moment, but then ends up shrugging. He continues to just stare at his plate and eat though, not looking up for a second.

Zayn exhales, trying to focus on his own food but it’s really driving him off the wall. Suddenly he remembers Harry’s words from earlier today. _You should consider talking to him again when there aren’t other people around._

Figuring he has nothing to lose, he waits until both he and Liam are done with their food and goes over to the older adults to ask them if he can take Liam to look around outside.

“Okay, bring a flashlight though,” daadi tells him.

“Of course daadi,” he responds. Even though he knows he has a flashlight app on his phone and can easily get around that way, he goes and gets an actual flashlight where she showed him they were earlier, because he knows it’ll make her feel safer.

After doing so, he leads Liam outside to the porch. “So this is my grandparents’ house from the outside.” He flashes around the bushes and trees that are straight ahead of the porch, then leads Liam up the driveway, showing him various other plants and trees.

He starts talking about one of his favorites. “This is where I planted a single daisy a few years ago, and since then it’s like, multiplied into a bunch of other daisies every year.” He smiles remembering how excited he was when his grandparents first told him his daisy had multiplied. He’s about to keep talking, but he gets interrupted.

“Zayn, I know you think I hate you,” Liam says all of a sudden. Zayn gasps, turning to face him. Liam smirks slightly as he stares down at his hands. “Yes, I can talk. But I can’t when other people are all talking at once – like your grandparents and my parents. All they do is talk, talk, talk, and there’s barely any time to breathe. I can’t talk in that – taking me to restaurants is the worst.” He giggles slightly, and Zayn smiles at his giggle. The two of them sit down on the side of the driveway.

“So you… can’t talk when a bunch of other people are talking around you?” Zayn repeats to make sure he understands. Liam nods, and Zayn thinks back to what Harry said earlier today. He wonders yet again if they really are a mind reader and don’t want to admit it.

“I also can’t make eye contact with people I just met, or in serious situations,” Liam plays with his fingers, making them snap over and over again. “But, uh, to answer your question, I _do_ know my favorite video game. It’s Mario Kart.”

“Me too,” Zayn tells him. “Maybe we could play it together sometime.” Liam _does_ look into his eyes at that statement, and smiles super wide.

“I would love that,” he says, returning his gaze to his fingers but keeping the smile on his face. “Thank you for taking me out here. It really is an amazing property that your grandparents own here.”

“Yeah, it really is.” Zayn bites his lip, thinking for a moment. It’s probably a bad idea, but something in him tells him he can trust Liam with this. Besides, Harry proved earlier today that they’re a far more understanding… being, than Zayn has been so far to Liam. “Umm… I have one more thing I want to show you.”

When Zayn starts actually turning to go inside the woods, Liam looks a little skeptical, but follows behind anyway.

As they reach the point where he knows Harry’s spaceship is crashed, he doesn’t even know what to say. So he doesn’t say anything. Instead he just flashes the light back and forth across the spaceship.

It takes a moment for Liam to get it, but once he does he gasps. “No way, that has to be a toy.” He practically runs over to it to feel it and once he does, he squeals. He’s obviously trying really hard to keep his squeals quiet, but it’s obviously difficult.

He starts jumping up and down and flapping his hands over and over again. “Oh my gosh,” he whisper-yells to Zayn. “You have a crashed spaceship in your woods?!”

“Yeah, I guess I’m cool like that,” Zayn winks. He walks up to Liam and grabs his arm. “Come on, I gotta show you the best part.”

Liam’s wide grin immediately turns into a deep glare and he forces Zayn’s hand off of his arm. “Don’t touch me when I’m flapping.”

Zayn’s heart immediately starts beating fast as he sees the anger on Liam’s face, and he puts both his hands up. “I’m sorry,” he says honestly. “Please, continue flapping. You can just follow me.”

“Okay,” Liam responds, perking up a little bit again. “Thank you.”

“Of course,” Zayn murmurs, still feeling like he messed it up (again). His heart continues beating fast as he leads Liam into the spaceship.

“Who’s there?!” Harry turns around with a weapon that Zayn is sure could kill even the most well-armed soldiers. As soon as they see it’s just Zayn and Liam though, they immediately put it back down and smile. “Oh hey Zayn. You know you really should announce your presence before coming in like that.”

“Well I thought you’d be able to like, feel my feelings or whatever it is you said you could do…” He giggles awkwardly and looks around for Liam. He finds him looking at that one amazingly colored plant Zayn couldn’t take his eyes off the first time Harry showed him around.

“Oh my gosh,” Liam says staring down at the plant. He touches it and smells it as well. “This is so cool.”

Harry smiles wider and walks over to him. “You must be Liam! I’m Harry Styles. Zayn’s told me a lot about you.”

“Oh?” He looks uncomfortable now. “What did he tell you about me?”

“That he thinks you’d be a cool friend to have,” they answer easily. Zayn starts blushing because it’s true. Liam turns towards him with his mouth open, eyes asking for confirmation. Zayn just nods, starting to understand why Liam finds it hard to keep eye contact in serious conversations. This is so awkward.

“Well, I think he’d be a cool one to have too,” Liam responds. Zayn returns his gaze to him and the two of them smile at each other. He thinks he can see Harry smiling too out of his peripherals.

Liam turns back to face Harry after a few moments of that. “This is such a cool plant. I never could have imagined that color on my own.”

“Yeah,” they say, glad to be talking about their favorite plant again. “My parent gave it to me as a present, as I was telling Zayn a few days ago. It can survive for long periods of time on its own without care.”

“That’s so cool!” He exclaims. “All of this is so cool. I can’t believe I’m standing in an actual real life alien spaceship. It’s so weird, but also so cool!”

Their grin just keeps getting bigger and bigger. “I’m glad you think so.” They start to frown now. “Unfortunately though, I currently can’t use it to navigate through your planet like I want to. I crashed it and I need help to fix it.” Zayn studies them, pretty sure where this is going.

“Well,” Liam is perking up again. “I know a lot about technology. I spend hours and hours online reading about technology, buying parts, etcetera. If it’s available on Earth, I can definitely help you with it!”

“Yes!” Harry cheers, then they high five each other.

“Wait, hold up,” Zayn says now. “Don’t you think the more people you get helping you the harder it will be to keep your location a secret?” He frowns. “You have to stay safe, I don’t want the government trying to take you away or something.”

Harry just sends him a reassuring gaze. “Zayn, I appreciate your concern, but I think that the more people I have helping me, the faster we can together have my spaceship fixed and ready to go.”

He looks back and forth between the two of them and sees how genuinely excited they both seem to be about this partnership. “Well, I guess if you’re going to get your ship fixed there should be at least one person who knows how technology works.”

The three of them giggle. Just then, Liam gets a notification on his phone. He stares at it and immediately freaks out. “Zayn, we’ve gotta go back now or else my mum is gonna kill me.” He grabs Zayn’s arm and starts taking both of them back out of the woods.

Zayn waves bye to Harry, laughing slightly at the force with which Liam is pulling. “I guess I’ll see you around.”

“See you,” they wave back, making sure to give him an I-told-you-so look before the door closes all the way. He just snickers at them and thinks _yeah, you did tell me so_.

***

“Oh no you didn’t!” Zayn calls. “You’re gonna regret that move Payne.”

“Oh am I?” Liam challenges. “Is that why I’m that many places ahead of you?”

“You’ve just been lucky!” Zayn objects. “I’m gonna come out of nowhere and beat you when you least expect it, just wait and see!”

“Mhmm, sure.” Zayn can see Liam’s smirk out of his peripherals and almost wants to slap him for it. “Words will be just words until you bring them to life, Malik.”

Right as Zayn’s about to make another comeback, Liam reaches the finish line. “Yes!” Liam cheers. “Ha ha, take that sucker!” He points at Zayn, who grumbles and demands a rematch.

Zayn’s been at Liam’s house for the past few hours playing video games, since Zayn’s grandparents don’t really have a TV except for one to watch VHSes on. They definitely don’t have any video game consoles or controllers either. He’s been having so much fun with Liam, even though he’s lost every time so far.

Liam giggles and shakes his head at Zayn. “Alright, _one_ more rematch.” However, he takes a bit longer than usual to press the button to play again.

“Is something wrong?” Zayn asks. “We really don’t have to rematch if you’re tired or-”

“No, no, it’s not that,” Liam assures him, smiling. “I just have something I want to tell you.”

“Okay.” Zayn can tell it’s important by the way Liam’s eyes go down to his fingers.

“So like,” he starts. “I’m sorry I yelled at you the other night for touching me while I was flapping. But I really need you to know that I don’t hate you at all.”

“What? You don’t? Is that why you refuse to let me win even one game?” Zayn teases, making Liam crack up.

“The reason I do all these things – the hard time with eye contact, the not being able to speak when other people are speaking – it’s because I’m autistic.” Liam takes a few deep breaths, as if he’s afraid of Zayn’s reaction. Zayn silently wonders who made him afraid of talking about this. “I’ve been diagnosed since I was like three, and I would never want to get rid of it. Anyway, I just thought that was important to tell you.”

Zayn can tell Liam is very afraid of talking about this. He frowns, not sure how to make Liam see he doesn’t need to be afraid. “Thanks for telling me, can I give you a hug?”

Liam makes eye contact with him as if this reaction is too good to be true. “Yes.” The two of them hug and he thinks he hears Liam happy-cry a little bit. “You still want to be my friend?”

“Of course, bro,” Zayn replies like it’s obvious, because it is to him. He then sits back up and grabs his controller again. “Unless you kick my butt again, then I want nothing to do with you.” He winks.

Liam cracks up again. “Well I must warn you, I probably will.” And with that, he presses the button that starts the game over again.

The two of them play two more games after that one, with Zayn ‘winning’ the last one. He honestly thinks Liam just let him win so that he’d finally leave, but that doesn’t stop him from celebrating it and rubbing it in Liam’s face anyway.

After that he looks at his phone and mentally freaks out at what time it is. His grandparents must be so worried about him. So he hugs Liam goodbye, says goodbye to Mr and Mrs. Payne, and heads back home.

That night he falls asleep happy about his growing friendship with Liam. He knew this summer would be awesome – because every summer with his grandparents is – but he has to say that so far this is the best one yet. He’s already made two new friends, one of which is a freakin’ alien, and he can’t wait to see what the rest of this summer has planned for them.

***

Zayn doesn’t know why he thought that constantly running off to meet his alien friend every day without an excuse _wouldn’t_ make his grandparents eventually get concerned. He probably just assumed they had their own stuff to worry about or something. However, now it’s finally coming back to him.

He arrives home for dinner later than usual (although with how often he’s been showing up ‘late’ it might as well be usual for him at this point).

“I’m sorry for being late, daadi and daada,” he apologizes profusely. He really does feel terrible for rarely being on time for dinner these past few weeks.

“Zayn, why have you been staying out so late recently?” daada asks calmly. “Did you make some new friends?”

“Yeah, we’re not angry Zayn,” daadi assures. “We just want to know just to make sure there’s nothing to be worried about.”

He can tell they’re doing their best to make sure he doesn’t feel anxious and he appreciates it, but he can’t help but feeling a little anxious nonetheless. He never intended to make them worried.

“Umm… Actually daada, I _did_ make some new friends,” he responds. It’s not a lie after all.

Daadi claps, smiling widely. “Oh pota I’m so happy!”

“Who are they?” daada asks, equally excited. “Is it that guy Louis Tomlinson that lives a few blocks down?”

“No, I bet it’s that girl Niall Horan.” His grandparents both share a nod.

“Uh… It’s both!” He says to try to get out of this conversation. “Yeah Liam introduced me to the two of them one day and well, I’ve been hanging out with the three of them ever since.” He really hopes his voice and face aren’t betraying his lie right now.

They don’t seem to be, because his grandparents continue smiling and both of them say “that’s great Zayn!”

After that, thankfully, they warm up Zayn’s plate and start talking about other things. That night, as Zayn goes to bed, he sighs and feels guilty for lying to his grandparents.

What was he supposed to say though? “I have an alien in the woods and Liam and I are helping them repair their spaceship”?

He couldn’t just say it was Liam either because they already know about him, so the two of them are not exactly ‘new’ friends anymore.

As he goes to sleep that night, he realizes in his mind that there’s only one solution: he has to meet these people named Louis and Niall. If he doesn’t, how else is he supposed to keep up this lie?

***

The next day Zayn comes into the woods, still very stressed and confused about how the heck he’s supposed to convince these Niall and Louis people to be his friends when all he knows about them is their names. He doesn’t even know their exact addresses. He decides the best thing to do is talk to Harry and Liam about it.

After he tells the two of them about his conundrum, Liam immediately speaks up. “Oooh, I know Louis! Before me and my family moved into this neighborhood, I went over to his house here all the time. We played football together in college! Don’t know this Niall girl though. The name kind of sounds familiar though.”

“Okay well it’s a start,” Zayn says. “Would you introduce me to Louis?”

“Of course,” Liam replies. “And don’t worry, he’s a huge alien enthusiast too.” He winks.

“What?!” Zayn objects. “No, we can’t add _more_ people to this.”

“Well Zayn how do you expect your lie to truly work unless the people you said were hanging out with you… are actually hanging out with you?” Liam challenges. “Besides, Louis is cool. He would never turn Harry in.”

Zayn turns to Harry, but they seem just fine with the idea. So he exhales. “Alright, which way to his house?”

Liam leads Zayn to Louis’ house. Since neither of them have a car, it takes longer than Zayn expected, but he’s happy to have the exercise he supposes. On the way there Liam tells him about his college adventures with Louis, on and off the football field.

Zayn laughs because this Louis guy sounds like just his type of friend. Stubborn, rarely abiding by the rules, cheekily embarrassing his friends, and most of all – hugely family oriented.

“He’s the biggest mama’s boy I know,” Liam giggles. “I remember he always felt like he couldn’t win a game unless she wished him good luck first. And you know what, on the two days in all those four years that she didn’t wish him good luck, he didn’t get any goals even though he was one of our top scorers. So maybe he was right after all.”

Zayn grins at the story. That’s so sweet. He secretly feels like he’d probably have a superstition like that about his parents too if he was an athlete.

Liam rings the doorbell and knocks on it four times, in a rhythm that sounds like it’s got to be an inside joke between him and Louis or something. “I’ll get it mum!” comes the voice on the other side.

As soon as the door opens it takes a split second before the person’s eyes immediately light up. “Payno!” A gigantic bear hug ensues and Zayn doesn’t even have to ask to know it’s Louis.

They pull back but both keep smiling at each other. “Oh my gosh Liam, I feel like I haven’t talked to you in forever man,” Louis says. Zayn definitely doesn’t feel like a third wheel. Nope, not at all. “What’s up? What brings you here?”

“You talked to me last week,” Liam reminds him, giggling. “Anyways, me and my new friend Zayn-” he motions to him “-wanted to know if you’d like to see a spaceship.”

“Bro, you can’t be that straightforward!” Zayn whisper-yells in his ear.

“Trust me Zayn,” Liam softly replies. “You don’t know Louis yet, but I do. The direct approach works the best.” Zayn doesn’t believe him, but he drops it and turns back to Louis, whose jaw is dropping.

“Heck yeah I would!” Louis declares, and wow, Zayn really wasn’t expecting him to actually believe them, but here they are. He turns his back to them for a moment. “Hey, mum! Me and Payno are gonna go hang out for a bit, is that cool with you?!”

“Sure honey!” a voice – his mom, Zayn guesses – calls back. “Just remember to bring a sweater!”

“Yay! Thanks mum!” He grabs the sweater that’s hanging up beside him and practically bolts out the door. Liam immediately starts running after him, but Zayn has to do a double take before he realizes he’s supposed to run to catch up to them.

They only run for about two minutes though before Zayn begs them to stop because he’s not as in shape as these ex-student athletes. They laugh for a moment at how out of breath Zayn is, and honestly Zayn would probably laugh at himself too if he could breathe right now.

“So Liam,” Louis says now, walking at a more normal speed. “How did you find out about this spaceship?”

“Well, my bro Zayn kind of showed it to me a few nights ago when our families were having dinner at his house.” He points to Zayn, who smiles at him calling him his ‘bro’. He’s glad Liam already thinks of them as close enough to be ‘bro’s.

“Dude that’s so sick!” Louis tells Zayn. “Does that mean it’s your spaceship? Because I mean, you are a bit too beautiful to be human.”

Zayn cracks up at that. “No, it’s not mine. I just heard a crash in my grandparents’ woods while I was reading one day, and lo and behold it was a real life spaceship.”

Louis shakes his head, grinning. “Wow, that’s so cool.” He then turns his head back and makes a face like Zayn just told him he met Madonna or something, not that he met a freakin’ alien.

Zayn stares at his back for a moment and then finally taps on his shoulder, not able to take it anymore. “Okay, honestly what gives? We tell you there’s a spaceship and you just automatically believe it just like that? I mean come on man, I was always one of the biggest alien believers in my school too, but I was still shocked, confused, and a bit disbelieving when I first saw that ship and the alien that came out of it.”

“Zayn, my friend,” he responds easily, putting a hand on his shoulder. “You don’t know the kind of friendship me and Payno here have. We may have played a lot of dumb tricks on each other over the years, but we were serious about things like this.”

“Serious about… aliens,” Zayn repeats, still disbelieving.

“Exactly!” Louis confirms. “Of course I believe you guys. He would never joke about something as big as this to me.” With that, Louis pats Zayn on the shoulder twice and then turns back to walking.

Zayn just shakes his head and wonders what kind of conversations Liam and Louis must have had with each other growing up.

For the rest of the walk, Zayn, Liam, and Louis are basically just having fun talking about everything and nothing. Zayn tells Louis about that first day he met Harry – how Harry had taken the form (and voice) of Beyoncé and even after Zayn knew it wasn’t the real Beyoncé he still couldn’t control himself.

Louis giggles. “Dude, I can imagine. If an alien were to take the form of Britney Spears in order to not scare me, it would fail because being next to someone who even looked like her would make me freak the f*** out.”

Zayn also shares with him the story of when Harry showed up in their new form at his grandparents’ house and said they were calling themself ‘Harry Styles’.

“‘Hairy Styles’?” Louis cracks up. “That totally doesn’t sound like a real name.”

“Thank you! That’s exactly what I said!”

The main thing that Zayn learns on the three boys’ walk to see Harry is that he thinks he’s definitely going to like Louis. His lie to daada about making a new friend in Louis, doesn’t really seem like it’s going to be such a lie anymore. He’s glad Liam introduced them to each other, and he can tell they’re only going to get closer as time goes on.

Eventually they finally reach Harry in the woods, who is chipper as ever.

“Hey guys.” They start walking toward the boys. Louis immediately starts fanboying.

“You’re real! I knew it! See Zayn I told you you were telling the truth!” Zayn scoffs because of course he knew that.

Harry laughs. “You must be Louis.”

Louis gasps. “You can read minds!”

They continue laughing, shaking their head. “No, Liam told me that you and him were besties in college.”

“Liam why did you lie to them?!” Louis demands. “We weren’t ‘besties in college’, we _are_ besties for life!”

Liam giggles. “You’re right, I shouldn’t have lied like that.”

“Dang right,” Louis agrees, then turns back to Harry. “So anyways, what brings you to Earth, Harry?”

“Well, Louis, long story short, I wanted to see Earth, I put on the autopilot, and wrongly thought it would auto-park too. So here I am.”

“Wow,” Louis responds, absolutely mesmerized. “Well, I tell you what Harry, you have absolutely nothing to worry about.” He pulls Liam in for a one-arm hug. “My man Liam here knows everything and more about the technology on this planet. I’m sure he will have it fixed up in a jiffy.”

“Oh I have no doubts,” they reply. “I’m sure figuring out how to fix my ship with you guys in and of itself will be an adventure.”

After that, even though they know they should probably at some point get around to fixing the actual ship, they spend more time talking to each other about their lives and stuff.

“So basically I told them that I was spending time with you and this Niall chick, even though I had no idea who the heck you two even were.”

“Niall Horan right?” Louis strokes his chin, smirking.

“Do you know her?” Zayn asks, finding it really hard to believe that all these people his age live in this area and he’s never met any of them until this year. Then again, he thinks, he never really made any effort to find out if there were people his age around here. He hasn’t ever really looked outside his grandparents’ land.

“Oh yeah,” Louis giggles, his smirk growing wider. “You could definitely say I know her. Heh heh.”

Zayn raises his eyebrows. “You’re kind of scaring me, Lou.”

“Wait,” Liam snorts. “It’s _that_ Niall?”

“Who else would it be?” Louis questions judgmentally. “It’s not exactly a common name around here.”

“Okay can somebody please clue me into the joke already?” Zayn demands, getting irritated with this.

Liam and Louis crack up, which only makes Zayn’s annoyance grow larger. Finally, after what feels like a million years, Louis speaks again.

“Me and Niall were friends with benefits in college.”

Zayn studies his expression to make sure he’s not joking, but he seems completely serious about it. Amused, but serious. “So… Are you two like… Still friends? Even if you don’t have ‘benefits’ anymore?”

Louis snorts. “Yes, definitely. We just decided after college that it was too weird for us because we were so close friendship-wise. And also she wanted to find someone to f*** _and_ love in University.” He shrugs.

“So you really never had romantic feelings for her?”

“Nope, none. Just knew she was hot.” He laughs for what must be the fifteenth time. “We grew closer personality-wise, but only as friends, never as romantic partners.”

Zayn nods, even though he personally can’t imagine not growing romantically attached to someone who he has sex with on a regular basis. “Well do you think you could introduce us?”

“Oh definitely. I would love to see her reaction when she realizes my ‘bizarre’ tales of aliens existing were actually true.”

“Well let’s go then!” Zayn encourages, not wanting to delay the main mission any longer.

“Mmm… Sorry, can’t do it yet,” he responds. Zayn’s eyes are about to bulge out of his head at this response, but he continues. “This is the time of day she goes to the gym for her daily walk. Usually lasts at least two hours.”

“You really keep up a lot with her for someone who claims to not have any romantic feelings for her…”

“It’s really not as weird as you’re making it sound,” he says. “We’re friends. Friends keep up with each other.”

“Alright, fine,” Zayn exhales. “Well, can you introduce us tomorrow then?”

“Of course.” He starts standing up. “Well I have to go home now because if I’m not home by seven to babysit, mum will be late for her shift. I’ll see you all at some point tomorrow though. It was great to meet you Zayn and Harry.”

“What do you mean ‘by seven’? It’s only-” Zayn stops that sentence when he turns on his phone and looks at the time. 6:30. “Oh my gosh where did the time go?”

“Time flies when you’re chilling with aliens,” Liam tells him, then thinks for a moment. “And Louis.” Zayn has to agree with both of those statements. “I should probably head back too. If I’m not on time for dinner it really messes up the rest of my night. See you tomorrow lads.”

Before the two of them leave though, they bring Harry and Zayn in for a big group hug. Then they wave goodbye and go on their way. Zayn pouts slightly. He didn’t want to stop talking with all of them. However, he knows he will see them again tomorrow and that perks him up again.

“They’re good people,” Harry says now. “I can already tell this crash-landing was the best mistake I ever made.” Zayn turns back to face them, and the two of them smile at each other.

As Zayn looks at Harry’s dimples in the now slowly dimming sunlight, he can’t help but think that he definitely agrees.

***

Zayn had such a long and hard sleep last night that he honestly almost forgot about most of what happened last night, other than Harry’s dimples in the light of the sunset which for some reason he can’t get out of his head.

So when he goes to the woods for his usual day with Harry and Company, he’s surprised when he sees someone else in their midst; someone pale, blonde, and wearing a red dress.

Before he can ask who it is though, Louis looks up from what he was doing. “Zayn, my man!” Louis stands up and puts an arm on Zayn’s shoulder, leading him over to where he’s sitting. “I’d like to introduce you to Niall Horan.”

Niall looks up from whatever she’s doing on her phone – Zayn isn’t sure what that possibly could be, seeing as how good service is so hard to get out here in the woods – and smiles at Zayn.

“Oh so you’re Niall Horan,” he says. “I’ve heard a lot.”

She giggles, speaking in a surprisingly-low voice. “I’m sure you have. Not too many details though I hope.” She winks at Louis. Zayn gags slightly.

“Uh, no, thankfully not,” he replies, sitting down in between her and Louis. “I really like your name, Niall. It’s very unique.”

“Thanks,” she smiles. “I like it a lot too. That’s why I decided to keep it even after starting my transition. No other name I looked up sounded nearly as cool, you know what I mean?” He nods at her.

“Definitely,” he agrees, then starts looking around to see if Harry is out here or not. “So has Louis like, told you why you’re here?”

“Well, he told me that you lied to your grandparents about hanging out with me. I’m not completely sure why you would lie about something so dumb though, no offense.”

“So that’s all he told you?” He looks towards Louis, who puts a finger over his mouth. She doesn’t seem to see it though.

“Yeah,” she confirms. “Well, I mean, he also told me that you were pretty cool and that I would probably end up actually wanting to hang out with you.”

“I see.” He turns to Louis again. “So, Louis, is Liam here too?”

“Uh, yeah,” Louis replies. “Actually he is.”

“Really?!” Niall asks now. “I haven’t seen Liam in forever. Where is he? I’ve gotta give him a hug.”

“He… Umm…” Before Louis can think up another lie to keep up this surprise though, all three of them gasp.

All of a sudden Harry’s spaceship appears next to them, and walking out of it is Harry and Liam, laughing about something.

“Well, Harry, thank you for giving me a blueprint of this thing, even if it took a while,” Liam says. “I already have an idea of a few parts we can try out for this area.” He points to a spot on the paper he’s holding.

“Thanks Liam,” Harry replies, giving him a one shoulder hug.

“Louis,” Niall speaks suddenly, in that slow angry tone that lets Zayn know that any second now she’s going to start yelling. His mom used to do the same thing when the kids forgot to do their chores. “Pardon my Irish, but… _What the f*** is going on_?!”

Harry and Liam turn around to face her, and Zayn isn’t sure whether he should hide in a bush or not.

Because they’re them, Harry starts approaching her like there’s no problem here whatsoever. “Hi, you must be Niall. Louis told me about you-”

“Well he didn’t tell me about you, so stay away from me,” she demands. Their ever-present grin fades to a deep frown. It hurts Zayn to see them so hurt, but he’s sure the heck not going to intervene right now. Out of the corner of his eye he can see Liam staring down at his fingers and breathing heavily.

“Niall, love,” Louis steps in. She glares at him but he presses forward anyway. “I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean to make you upset. This is our friend Harry Styles, and they’re, well, they’re an alien. I brought you here so that you could meet them and help us protect them while Liam is helping repair their ship.”

There’s a moment of silence and then she just starts chuckling, anger still very obvious in it. “Really Louis? You really dragged me all the way down here just for another one of your fake alien stories? It was cute in college, but honestly it’s just getting pathetic at this point.”

She doesn’t listen to any of Louis’ attempts to interrupt her as she starts walking towards the spaceship. “Like really? You must think I’m dumb or something. I know how good Liam is with technology. I know he built whatever this thing is and hooked it up so that there would be that little disappearing effect. Really convincing I must say, but not convincing enough. I bet if I even tried to open this door it wouldn’t-”

She stops, and is silent for a moment as the door actually opens. “Okay but you see if I actually go in here, I bet all the stuff would just be fake-” Silence again. Liam, Louis, Zayn, and Harry all watch and listen as she goes inside the ship and touches stuff.

Finally she comes back out of the ship and everyone just stares at her, waiting for her to say something. At last she smiles and says, “Well, what do you know Tomlinson? I guess all that s*** you and Liam talked in college turned out to be for real.”

The rest of the crew just start cheering and walking towards her. As they all sit down next to her, Louis says, “So I guess now we should probably explain why we need to help our friend Harry here.”

She giggles. “Well, that would be nice, yes.” So after they tell her the whole story, they stare at her for a moment, waiting for a reaction. “What? Why the stares? Of course I’m in, duh.”

Somehow after that they end up in a very big, very tight group hug. They stay in that bundled up position for a while, celebrating their new official crew. They need a name, Zayn thinks. He bets Harry could think of a good one.


	2. The Greatest Team That The World Has Ever (Not) Seen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for meltdown (not a panic attack) in this chapter.

“So like, since we’re all one big happy team now I guess we should start working on fixing the ship!” Liam announces excitedly.

Zayn and the others look up from their gigantic Harry-centric cuddle party. They’re all sprawled over the grass, hugging each other so close that they probably shouldn’t be able to breathe but they’re still able to talk to each other. Or at least they were talking to each other until Liam stood up and made this announcement.

“Ugh,” Louis draws out. “Do we _have_ to?”

“Yeah,” Zayn agrees. “Stop being so sensible Liam, come back here and listen to Harry’s story about the other lifeforms on their planet.”

Liam groans. “Guys, come on. I know we’re having fun together but I feel like I’m the only one taking this seriously.”

Louis stands up now and starts walking over to him. “Liam, babe, we _are_ taking it seriously. We’re just really enjoying getting to know each other.”

“Yeah,” Zayn agrees, snuggling even closer to Harry now that Louis is gone. “And I don’t know about you but I don’t know when I’ll see another alien in this lifetime, especially one this attractive.” He blushes immediately after he realizes what he just said. Nobody comments on it though.

“No, no, he’s right you guys,” Harry says, standing up. Zayn pouts slightly when that happens, but he and Niall stand up shortly after nonetheless. “We don’t have to stop having a laugh with each other just because we’re working on the ship, you know?” The rest of the crew echo things that sound like ‘right’ ‘sure’ ‘whatever’.

“Thanks Harry,” Liam responds, a grin returning to his face now. He starts walking closer to the rest of the crew. “Also I wanted to talk to you about this set-up.”

“What set-up?” Harry asks. Everyone is sitting down on the grass again; most of them are now at an arm’s length distance, except for Zayn and Harry who are all but hip to hip.

“Well, I know you like to be with your ship and all, but it would be a lot easier if we could always have you somewhere we can easily get to you and all.” Liam clears his throat. “Because sometimes we’ll be in the woods and your ship will still be on its invisibility mode, and it’s awkward because we don’t know how to get your attention or let you know we’re here-”

“And it’s also awkward when you’re chilling with your old college fling and his new friend, and out of nowhere a spaceship, an alien, and Liam appear.” Niall interrupts, everyone turning to her. “Just saying.”

Harry chuckles, nodding. “Okay yeah, definitely.”

“But where would be such a convenient place for all of us?” Zayn asks. “I mean, our houses are so spread out.”

Niall gives him a glare now. “You know, this current set-up isn’t exactly the most convenient place for all of us either.”

Zayn shrugs one shoulder, blushing because of how self-centered he must have just sounded. “Alright, good point. Do you have any ideas, Niall?”

“As a matter of fact, I do,” she smiles. “I have an old treehouse in my yard from when I was a child and-”

“Wait, hold up, I’ve seen this movie before,” he interrupts, shivering. “If the five of us all went in there at once it would crash and we’d all need to go to the hospital.”

“Well, the five of us don’t need to go in there at once,” she responds, obviously not happy he cut her off. “We just need a place for Harry to stay while our technologically-impaired brains – and Liam – are trying to figure out how to fix this ship.”

“I think that sounds like a great idea,” Liam tells her, nodding. “And that way if any of us has a question about the ship, one of us can go up to the treehouse and ask them.”

Zayn raises his hand, but doesn’t wait to be called on or anything like that. He turns to Harry and asks, “So how do we configure the visibility and invisibility mode? In case my grandparents for whatever reason want to go into the woods.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Harry replies. Their voice is both soft and at the same time loud enough for everyone in their little crew to hear. It sends chills up and down Zayn’s spine. “Liam has the blueprints and I showed him how to do it just to be sure.”

Zayn nods, then tries to turn back to Liam but is having trouble because for whatever reason Harry’s eyes are the most important thing to him right now. They seem to be keeping their gaze on Zayn as well, and he’s not sure if they’re doing that because they expect him to say more or not.

When both of them finally turn back, Liam chuckles slightly. “Yeah, don’t worry about it Zayn. You’re dealing with the number one tech geek in the world, according to most of this neighborhood. I’ll make sure your grandparents don’t rat out Harry.” Zayn smiles, glad that they are all on the same page.

A few minutes later – after making sure they turn Harry’s ship invisible for the time being – Niall leads all of them to her childhood treehouse. She leads Harry up to the top, telling the boys to all stay at the bottom because two people of their weights in there at once is already pushing it. The boys oblige.

After she shows Harry everything and they seem to find a comfortable sitting place, she starts climbing back down. As the crew watches up at Harry, Zayn speaks up.

“So Harry, I have to ask you one thing before we get to work.”

They smile. “No, I can’t allow you to cuddle with me up here.”

“I- what?” _How did they know I wanted to do that?_ He thinks to himself, starting to freak out and trying to turn it down because they can feel when he has strong emotions.

They crack up suddenly though. “Zayn, I was just kidding. What is it?”

Zayn blushes as he hears the rest of the crew laughing as well. He tries to relax his emotions and return to focus. “Well, Harry, there’s only one thing missing from this crew now, and we can’t truly start without it you know. We need a name. What is our name?”

“Hmm…” They think about this for a minute. “One Direction.”

“One Direction?” Louis repeats. “Why?”

“Because with your help I will go in one direction – around the planet.” They pause for a moment. “And also because I’m the boss. Bye.” They close the door to the treehouse.

Niall, Liam, Louis, and Zayn all start laughing. “Well,” Louis says. “Can’t argue with that. Alright, well, One Direction, let’s get in formation.”

Zayn chuckles, wondering if Louis realizes how punny what he just said truly was considering the way he first met Harry.

The four of them all head back to start working on the ship, Zayn silently praying that Harry will be okay.

***

“Liam, are you sure this is supposed to go in here?!” Zayn asks as he tries for the gazillionth time to put the needle inside the compartment Liam showed him to put it in.

“Yes, I’m positive,” Liam tells him. “It must need something else inside it to make it work. Some sort of fuel or something.”

“You know what would make _great_ fuel?” Louis says as he’s taking a drink from his mug of coffee. “Caffeine! If this stuff can keep you up all night, I bet it could definitely keep an alien ship running smoothly for many days at a time.”

Zayn, Liam, and Niall all laugh at each other, but then they realize Louis is actually coming towards them with his mug of coffee. All at once they try to stop him. “No Louis, don’t do that!” “You could fry the engine, that’s a terrible idea!” “We don’t know what it could do to this machine, and Harry can’t exactly get a new one!”

Louis looks like he’s about to pour it in, but he pulls it back at the last second. “Come on you guys, you really think I’m that dumb? Please.” However, as he leans back for a moment, all four eyes watch as a single drip of coffee falls into the engine. They all run away into a nearby bush, preparing for the worst.

However, as soon as the drip finishes falling, the engine… starts up. It’s a very small startup, but it’s working all the same.

“Okay what the actual f***?” Liam is the first one to comment.

“Yo,” Niall says. “You really do know your stuff about aliens. You outsmarted the tech geek.” She and Louis giggle and fist bump each other, with Liam glaring at them both.

“Wow Louis,” Zayn is shaking his head, still trying to process how that actually worked. “Let’s go make some more of that coffee. Also buy some extra bags to be ground later.”

“Great idea!” Louis gets out of the bush and he, Niall, and Zayn all start going.

“Guys, shouldn’t we turn off the engine first?” Liam asks, concerned.

“Another great idea!” Louis tells him, but keeps on walking.

“Yeah, thanks for volunteering to do that, Liam!” Niall agrees. The three of them keep speed-walking away to find a car to use to go get more coffee, and they can vaguely hear Liam sighing angrily.

***

Team One Direction are taking a break today. Louis’ mom has an extra long shift today, so as a result he’s on babysitting duty for his younger siblings. Zayn and Liam’s families have also decided they’re going to have another dinner together tonight at Liam’s house. Niall… Well, she’s using this as an excuse to stay in bed all day. And Harry’s having fun just chilling in her treehouse.

Zayn and Liam are happy to have another group dinner with their families; as much as they’ve been having fun together with the rest of the crew, both of them can’t help but admit they miss spending time with their families a lot.

As usual, the older adults sit together on one side of the table and the Uni boys sit on the other side. Tonight the conversation is a little quieter than usual – either that or Zayn and Liam are actually both comfortable enough around each other now that the older adults’ conversation just isn’t as distracting anymore.

“This is really good, Mrs. Payne,” Zayn comments between bites.

“Thank you Zayn,” she responds. Liam nods and gives a thumbs up while she’s looking at the two of them. She giggles. “And thank you Liam.” He nods again.

“So you two boys have been spending a lot of time together,” Daada says now. “Have you been doing anything fun?”

“Oh absolutely,” Zayn replies, mentally laughing. “Liam here has been teaching me, Niall, and Louis a lot about technology and tools. A lot of cool stuff.” He takes another bite of his food and silently hopes Daada doesn’t press for more information. He doesn’t.

“That’s great!” Mrs. Payne says now. She looks like she’s about to say more, but then someone knocks on the door. She gets up to answer it.

“Good,” Liam whispers in Zayn’s ear. “I was almost afraid she was gonna keep talking and tell an embarrassing story from my childhood or something.” Zayn giggles.

When she greets the people at the door, Zayn stops giggling. Both him and Liam immediately freeze, with Liam staring down at his plate with so much focus that his eyes could be glued to it. He’s also rocking in his seat very slowly. Zayn carefully puts his hands on his shoulders, watching for his reaction to see if this is okay. Liam doesn’t stop him so he keeps his hands there and rubs slow circles.

“Umm… Hello, may I help you?” She asks, tone very surprised and confused.

“Good evening, ma’am, we’re with the CIA. We're looking into some suspicious activity in the neighborhood, do you mind answering a few questions?” one of them says.

“Uh, okay… Sure…” She lets them in and leads them to the dinner table. Liam continues staring down at his plate, while Zayn can’t focus on anything except for the big suits that these people are wearing and how worried he is about what they are about to say.

She offers them the three extra chairs, and they take them. The person who seems to be the ‘leader’ of the group takes out a pen and paper. “First, have you seen anyone new in the neighborhood recently?”

“Well, we only just moved in here a few months ago,” she shrugs. Zayn can hear Liam’s breathing coming out more and more labored. He keeps rubbing faster soft circles on his shoulders. “But other than that, no.”

The official writes that down, then continues. “Have you seen anything suspicious recently?” Liam squeezes Zayn’s leg with one hand.

“Liam, it’s okay,” Zayn tries to whisper in his ear. It’s not working though, and a few seconds later Liam decides he really can’t take this anymore.

“No!” he screams, shaking his head viciously and hyperventilating a lot. “No, no, no!” He looks like he’s trying to say other words, but he’s freaking out so hard that that’s the only word he can say.

“Sweetie,” his mother tries to say to him. “There’s no reason to panic-”

“No! No, no, no!” he screams again, pulling on his hair as he practically runs out of his chair and up to his room, crying hard.

Zayn just watches as he runs away, then turns back to face everybody else at the table, feeling a little out of breath himself. He sees the officials write something else down on their piece of paper, and the action makes Zayn so angry.

“Officers,” Mrs. Payne says now, still obviously upset from seeing that. “Can you please give me a moment to go talk to my son? He has bad memories associated with law enforcement…”

The officials make a weird face at each other, as if those words confirmed something for all of them. “Don’t worry, ma’am, we got everything we needed. Have a good night.” With that, they walk out the door.

Got everything they needed? Zayn repeats to himself. What did they get exactly?

“Um, Mrs. Payne,” he speaks, voice cracking. “Can I go talk to Liam?” She nods, pointing to where his room is, even though she knows by now that Zayn already knows where it is.

He walks up to Liam’s door, knocks on it, and opens it shortly afterward. “Liam,” he starts, kneeling beside his bed. “They’re gone, just so you know…”

Liam’s on his bed, face covered in tears, squeezing [a weird looking toy](https://i.imgur.com/373HPO2.png) over and over again. “They know, Zayn. They have to know. I… I don’t want them to take them away.”

“I know,” Zayn agrees, voice cracking again. “I don’t think they know exactly where to find Harry yet, but they’re on their trail for sure.” He wipes one of his own tears. “I promise that we won’t let them succeed though.”

“Really?” Liam asks, sniffling as he keeps squeezing his toy.

“Definitely,” Zayn assures. “They’re the best alien I’ve ever met, I’m not gonna let the government take the one cool thing about my life away.” That does make Liam chuckle slightly.

Eventually, Liam’s mom comes in and Zayn decides it’s best if he and his grandparents go home. Later on he thinks he hears Daada and Daadi praying that the rest of Liam's night passes safely, as well as wishing him a happier day tomorrow. He prays the same.

***

The next day, Zayn, Liam, Niall, and Louis all come to work on the spaceship as usual, but before they begin Zayn calls them all to sit down.

“So guys,” he tells them, trying his best to keep his tone neutral. He’s not sure he succeeds based on Niall and Louis’ faces, but they don’t interrupt him either. “Last night, me and Liam’s families had dinner together and…” He’s getting a little choked up already, and he sees Liam staring at his snapping fingers.

“The CIA came.” After Zayn says those words, Louis and Niall gasp, faces immediately turning to Liam with concern. They’re probably thinking about whatever Mrs. Payne was telling the officers last night. They’ve known him for a long time after all.

“Yeah,” Zayn continues. “And they were asking Liam’s mom these invasive questions about if someone new is in the neighborhood and if she’s noticed anything ‘suspicious’ lately.” He wipes his eye before the tears can truly start falling again.

“Oh my gosh,” Louis says, scooching closer to Liam’s side. “Liam, are you okay?”

Liam nods, but doesn’t respond with words. Zayn can tell that means he still isn’t, but he bites his lip and doesn’t say anything. Eventually he finally finds the ability to speak again, but still doesn’t look at any of them. “Can we just get back to repairing the ship now?”

Niall, Zayn, and Louis all share looks, before mentally agreeing that it’ll probably be best if Liam does what he loves and knows best. “Yes,” the three of them respond together. After they do, Liam wastes no time in walking over to the ship with a bag of some tools (and coffee).

Before they follow him though, Zayn holds them back for a moment. “So guys,” he says quietly, not wanting to make Liam hear him and relive it any more than he just had to. “What should we do? Should we tell Harry, or keep it a secret?”

“I don’t know…” Louis frowns. “I don’t want them to get stressed, but this is really serious.”

“I’ll tell you what I know,” Niall replies, adjusting her position so she can get even closer. “I know Liam, and I know when he’s upset, he copes with it by throwing himself into tools and technology. I honestly think he could very well finish fixing it tonight because of how focused he is. And if that happens, Harry will never have to know the CIA showed up.” She pauses, sniffing. “I think we should just see what happens today and then tomorrow we can decide whether or not to tell them.”

Zayn and Louis nod at her. “Yeah,” Zayn agrees, pushing his hair back. “That’s a good ide-”

“Hey!” Liam calls, turning all their faces towards him. “Are you guys gonna help me or not?! I need a lot of, um, woman-power to get this thing going.” He thinks for a moment. “And no, that doesn’t mean Niall is the only one who has to do work. Just get over here!”

The three of them all laugh and do as he says. Niall definitely wasn’t lying, Zayn learns. Liam truly throws himself so hard to fixing this thing that it’s hard for the rest of them to keep up. It’s not that they’ve exactly been ‘slacking’ before now, but they took longer breaks where they just talked to each other (and Harry) about everything and nothing. However, Liam looks and sounds very happy to be in his zone, so none of them really mind.

It’s seven PM, which is usually the time Liam goes home for dinner. He’s such a routine-oriented person that Zayn is honestly shocked when he tells them that he texted his mom to tell her he wouldn’t be coming home because he and Zayn are having a sleepover.

“Not coming home?” Zayn repeats, concerned. “Liam, do you really think you’ll be out here that long?”

“There’s just this one part that I can’t figure. It can take a while, maybe even until eleven PM. But I can’t stop until I figure it out.” Zayn, Niall, and Louis share looks with each other again, not sure how to respond to that.

Eventually Niall and Louis have to go home. Zayn stays a bit longer, although he does go in at one point to get Liam some bread. However, as time passes, he gets more and more tired.

“Zayn, you can go to your house,” Liam tells him. “I promise I’m okay, I almost have it figured out.”

Because Zayn is half asleep and has no more energy for arguing, he decides to listen to Liam. “Okay. After you’re done, you’re more than welcome to come upstairs to the second door you see and sleep here. I’ll leave an extra blanket and pillow on the floor for you.”

Liam smiles, eyes still looking absolutely wide awake. “Thank you Zayn, I’ll be in in a minute.”

Zayn just nods, having to practically drag himself to his house and up to his room. He can barely send a prayer for Liam to stay safe and not overwork himself, before completely passing out.

***

Ring, ring, ring.

The first sound Zayn hears when he wakes up is his phone ring tone. Stretching, he picks it up. It’s an unknown number but he decides to answer it anyway, noting that it’s already 12:45 PM. _Woah._

Yawning, he greets the phone. “Hello.”

“Hi Zayn.” He knows that voice – it’s Mr. Payne. “This is Liam’s dad. I was just wondering when you and Liam think he’s gonna be ready to come home today. He’s already missed lunch; usually he comes home before lunch after sleepovers.”

“Oh.” Zayn looks over on the floor, but the pillow and blanket are empty. He figures Liam must have probably passed out in the woods from working all night last night. “Don’t worry Mr. Payne. I’ll make sure Liam is home really soon.”

“Thank you Zayn,” he sighs with relief.

“No problem. Goodbye.”

“Bye.”

Zayn puts on his shoes and walks downstairs. “Hi daadi and daada. I’m sorry for sleeping in so long.”

“It’s okay pota,” Daadi tells him with a smile. “I can tell that you had a long night, and that you probably want to go visit your friends again now. But before you go, take something to eat.” She hands him some bread, and he thanks her.

He really has the most understanding grandparents ever, he thinks. He never understood the whole ‘overprotective grandparent’ stereotype because his grandparents are honestly the farthest thing from overprotective. Maybe a little too under protective at times, but at least they give him his space.

He chews his bread as he walks. As he gets closer and closer to the spot where he’s supposed to turn off into the woods, he starts to hear voices. Voices of people, people who aren’t Liam, Niall, or Louis. Neither are any of them the voice of an alien named Harry. His stomach drops as he starts to worry.

He goes into the area of the woods, and his eyes practically bulge out of his head. He would scream if it wasn’t for the last of the bread still in his mouth.

“What the heck is with all the coffee in here? Do aliens like use coffee to lure in humans or something?”

It’s the CIA agents who showed up at Liam’s house two days ago. And there’s more of them. He doesn’t see Liam, but he does see these people trying (and failing) to figure out how to work the ship.

He’s not sure how long he just stands there looking at them before one of them turns towards him. He’s never ran so fast in his entire life. Leg muscles he didn’t even know were there spring to life as he runs, runs, runs, all the way from his house to Niall’s house to her treehouse in the backyard.

He’s walking up the ladder to the treehouse, then he sees Harry and Niall in it talking. “Oh, hey Zayn,” she greets. “Look I’m sorry for being late but I figured that- Wait, Zayn, don’t come in here, remember the weight limit.”

“Forget your dumb weight limit!” He responds frantically, but he stays on the ladder anyway. “The CIA are in the woods!”

“…What?” She and Harry say together.

“Yeah, Liam never came in last night after he finished working on the ship. I figured he passed out in the woods, so I went to look for him, and… I didn’t see him, but I definitely saw the CIA.” Zayn is hyperventilating at this point. “What are we going to do?”

A look of hard determination suddenly comes over Harry. “I can’t let them take Liam. Niall, go get Louis. Zayn, take me to them.”

“What are you going to do?” she asks.

“I’m gonna turn myself in,” they answer like it’s obvious. Zayn knew that was coming but didn’t want to be right.

“No, Harry, you can’t-” she starts, but they stop her.

“Niall, I have to. I can’t let them wrongly take away Liam. Just go get Louis and have him drive up to meet us. Please.” She nods at them, frowning.

Zayn climbs down the ladder, and Harry follows after him. The two of them speed walk, and Harry holds Zayn’s hand – probably so Zayn is able to keep up and not get too far behind, he thinks.

When they finally arrive at the end of Zayn’s driveway though, Harry tells him to stay there. “No!” Zayn complains. “Absolutely not. I won’t let you go in there by yourself.”

“If you go in there with me they might hurt you,” they say, their eyes starting to turn moist as they put both of his hands in theirs. “I don’t want that to happen. Liam is already suffering because of me, I don’t want that to happen to you too.”

He feels tears starting to come down his face now. “But… if you didn’t want us to follow after you, why’d you tell Niall to get Louis to drive up here?”

“Because when I turn myself in, I’m hoping they let Liam go. And if they don’t…” They wipe one of their eyes. “If they don’t I want you to have an easy escape. A way to get away from them and to safety.”

“I can’t – I can’t allow them to take you…”

“And I can’t allow you to chase after me,” they tell him. Both of them are just seconds away from sobbing as Harry lets go of Zayn’s hands and gives him a hug. “Thank you Zayn. You, and the rest of Team One Direction. I love you.”

“I…” His voice gets weak, but he has to finish that sentence before they leave. “I love you too.”

They then let go, and Zayn sobs, dropping to the ground as he watches them go into the woods. After a few moments of staying in that position though, a determination comes over him only comparable to that face Harry had in the treehouse.

He runs into the woods, slowing down towards the end and hiding in a bush nearby, making sure to be as quiet as possible so he’s not caught.

He hears one of the officers scoffing. Even though he’s far away from the action he can just make out the name tag of that officer says Ben Winston. They look like the one who was the ‘leader’ at Liam’s house two nights ago.

“Yeah right,” Ben says. “All of the evidence points to this guy, we caught him passed out next to the spaceship, _and_ he was obviously uncomfortable when we came over to his house. I bet you’re just one of his friends who is trying to save his a***.”

“Gee,” Harry sasses. “You ever think that maybe he was uncomfortable because you’re the f***ing CIA entering his house at dinner time for literally no reason?”

“Aha!” Ben points. “See, how would you know that unless you were his friend or a stalker?”

Harry rolls their eyes, putting their hands up. “Fine, you caught me. I’m his friend. But, that doesn’t change the fact that I’m also the alien you’re looking for. I can prove it. Put me in the spaceship. I’ll know exactly where everything is, how to make it work, everything.”

“Ben,” one of the other agents speaks now. “Let’s just take them both, we don’t have time for this nonsense.”

“Fine,” Ben agrees, shrugging. “Might as well.” The agents work together to drag Harry into the car, and Zayn has to cover his mouth to stop himself from yelling and going to punch them all out right now.

The agents all tuck Harry into the backseat of their car – next to Liam, he can now see. He can also see Liam is covering his eyes with his hands and crying. Harry tries to reach out an arm to help make him feel better, but the agents seem to tell them no touching or something.

Zayn watches them pull out and makes his way back out of the woods to the end of the driveway. Just as he gets out, the CIA drive away. He watches after them with so much anger he can feel his head steaming.

Just then, Niall and Louis pull up. Louis rolls down the window frantically. “Zayn! Niall told me everything. Where is Liam?”

“He’s still with the CIA,” Zayn responds, somehow managing an equally sad and angry voice. “Along with Harry too. They took both of them.”

“What?!” Louis demands, a fire also building up in his eyes.

“What are we gonna do?” Niall asks, looking close to tears.

“I’ll tell you what we’re gonna do,” Louis answers before Zayn can. “We’re going after those sons of b****es and getting our crew back. No one messes with Team One Direction and gets away with it.”

“I had a feeling I was going to like you.” Zayn smirks, hopping into the backseat and quickly buckling up.


	3. I've Got Fire For A Heart

Louis may be driving slow in order to be unnoticed by the CIA, but Zayn still feels like it’s one of the fastest car rides of his life.

Before they know it, the CIA car is turning a corner and the crew somehow knows if they were to turn there too, it would be a terrible idea. So Louis parks the car and the three of them carefully get out of the car and start sneaking inside the building they see all of the agents going towards. They stay downstairs while the agents take their friends up the elevator and wait impatiently to see which floor it lands on. Once they have it, they sneak up the stairs.

They think they see Ben Winston go through a door, so they carefully hide behind it and wait for any sounds. They keep waiting, and waiting, and waiting, but they don’t hear anything. They don’t hear anything because the room is soundproof.

The more they wait with an inability to hear anything, the more nervous they get. Zayn starts assuming the worst; that they’re being tortured in order for the guards to get the answers they want out of them, whether or not they are true. He’s sweating and his heart is beating fast as scary images pop up in his head. The three of them all look at each other and it’s obvious they’re thinking the same thing.

“I can’t take this,” Louis whispers. “I have to go in there, I can’t wait any longer.” Niall and Zayn hold him back.

“Louis!” Niall whisper-yells. “I know you are scared; we all are. But you can’t go in there yet. Otherwise they’ll get you too and none of us will get out of this alive.”

He gulps. “I know, I know. I’m just really worried okay?”

“I know,” she tells him. “I know…”

Just then, they hear the door open. In one swift motion, they step behind the agents that are getting out and go inside right before the door can close and ring the alarm.

When they get inside the room, they see Harry and Liam, standing with their hands cuffed and their feet chained to the floor. Zayn is almost relieved, he was expecting to see something much worse. It still hurts to see them stuck like this though.

“Liam,” Harry says. “You can’t stay here. You can’t be stubborn just to save me. You need to just let them take me.”

“Well we’re not gonna let them take either of you!” Zayn announces. Liam and Harry gasp as Zayn, Niall, and Louis step out.

Liam looks like he’s about to start flapping but then remembers he’s still cuffed, and gives the cuffs a glare.

“Zayn,” Harry speaks softly, their facial expression a mix of concern and anger. “You weren’t supposed to chase after us, you were supposed to stay at home with the others.”

Zayn is about to argue, but there’s no time he decides. “Well, it’s too late to turn back now, so I suppose you’ll just have to let us save you.”

The three of them rush over to their friends. “My mom used to be a cop,” Niall tells them as she starts unfastening their handcuffs. Louis and Zayn work together to unchain their feet. “Let’s just say I had a lot of practice doing this.”

After both Harry and Liam are released, Liam starts flapping excitedly. He looks like he wants to start squealing too, but he doesn’t.

Niall, being the quick thinker she is, stopped the door from clicking shut when they were going in using a piece of chewed gum. So the five of them all head out of the door and start rushing down the stairs, before they hear… the alarms going off. Of course. Zayn isn’t sure why he expected them to get out of here easily.

“Okay,” Louis whispers as three groups of two agents appear in front of them. “Here’s the plan. Me and Liam will run in two different directions to distract them, and then you guys can speed-walk around them to get outside.”

“Are you saying I can’t take ’em?” Niall objects.

“Of course not babe. I just don’t want-”

“Hey, stop talking!” One of the agents says. The five of them all turn away from each other. “Either you come quietly now or there will be consequences.”

Liam and Louis give each other a look and before Zayn can blink the two of them are running in opposite directions.

“Get them!” The agents start charging. Two of them go the way Liam went and knock into each other, two of them go the way Louis went and end up doing the same thing. Zayn would laugh, if the situation wasn’t so scary.

As he, Niall, and Harry make their way to the door as fast as they can, they can just see Liam and Louis kicking the last two guards - who were trying to cut Liam and Louis off - in the gonads. The five of them are all out the door when the agents are calling for back-up.

Running, running, running. That’s all they can do right now. Even though Zayn can already feel himself getting exhausted, he refuses to let himself take a breather for one second.

Consider it a gift from God, or just straight dumb luck, but somehow when they run into the woods across from the building, they find Harry’s spaceship.

“Well,” Harry tells them, that smile that Zayn loves returning to their face. “I guess it’s finally time that Team One Direction flew all together in the ship.”

“Yes!” Zayn and Niall cheer.

“No offense HairStyle, but the last time you flew this thing, you had to use the autopilot. I say we give the wheel to the man who knows this whole thing front, back, and center. Liam Payne.”

Zayn expects Harry to get offended, but their reaction is the exact opposite of what he expected. “You know Louis, that’s exactly what I was thinking.”

They all cheer as they load into the ship, and Liam takes them up, up, up. Zayn’s not sure how the agents aren’t screaming at them in the air – but then he guesses it’s probably because Liam already activated the invisibility mode.

The five of them spend several minutes like this, just flying through the air in the fully finished spaceship, laughing softly at the agents struggling to figure out where the heck they all went. Zayn is usually scared of heights and airplanes, but somehow being in an alien spaceship with four people that have become his best friends doesn’t cause him nearly as much fear.

Maybe it’s just the fact that after escaping six highly trained CIA agents no fear comes anywhere close, maybe he’s glad to be sitting after all that running, or maybe he just trusts Liam to know his stuff more than a professional airplane pilot. Whatever it is though, he loves it.

He loves it, that is, until he remembers something and his heart starts pumping again. “Louis… What about your car?”

Louis freezes, and for a second everyone is quiet. “I can’t think about that right now.” He immediately starts shaking his head. “I hid it in a relatively safe place so hopefully it will give us enough time to get as far away from them as possible and go back for it later.” He takes a few deep breaths after saying this.

“Okay,” Zayn responds, nodding understandingly. He feels guilty for asking now. “Of course.”

Liam just cruises them through the sky for the rest of the journey home. It’s only been a few hours but Zayn knows their families are worried sick about them. He can tell Liam’s thinking the same thing.

On the way home, Liam dodges birds and airplanes. None of the pilots on these planes are able to explain what that weird split second of turbulence was. Finally, they near their neighborhood again. They do go back to Zayn’s grandparents’ woods again, but this time they hide the ship way farther away from the original location, with Harry in it and still on invisibility mode.

“I know how to get to my house from here,” Liam explains while carefully landing and turning the engine off. “We’ll all go there, make up an excuse to my parents, and then come back here and use the ship to go get Louis’ car. Sound good?” Everybody nods quickly.

After that everyone except Harry heads out of the ship, with Liam leading the way. When they all reach his house he doesn’t even knock before walking in. As soon as all of them get in though, Zayn can immediately tell Liam’s parents are really, really upset. And what do you know, his grandparents just happen to be there too…

“Liam!” Mrs. Payne says, her and her husband getting up from their seats on the couch and rushing over to hug him. Zayn’s grandparents stand up too when they see him with them.

After they hug, Mr. Payne asks, “Where have you been?! We called Zayn’s phone two hours ago and he said you would be back soon, but then you weren’t…” Liam stares down at his hands, looking ashamed.

“It was my fault,” Louis says, stepping in. “I took Zayn and Liam shopping across town with me and Niall here, and we kind of lost track of time. I told them not to call because I thought we’d be back any minute, but we weren’t. I’m sorry.”

“Thank you, Louis,” Mrs. Payne responds. She still looks like she’s trying to calm down all her remaining tears. “I’m glad you all had a great time together.” She and her husband hug him now too.

Zayn’s grandparents also walk over to the group. They look like they’re about to say something too, but before they can they’re cut off by the door being slammed open.

“Where are they?!” it’s the CIA agents, with Ben leading the group as always. Zayn has to bite his lip and force himself from looking like he has any idea what is going on.

“What are you talking about?” Louis questions, looking and sounding genuinely confused. He’s a really good actor in times of pressure, it would seem.

Ben grabs him by the collar. “You know d*** well what I’m talking about you f***ing-”

“Hey!” Mrs. Payne speaks up now, all the tears that were in her eyes now replaced with flames of fury. “I demand to know why you are barging into my house with no warning and putting your hands on this young man!”

“Because,” Ben responds, not letting go of Louis. “This young man and his friends broke into an official government office today and escaped with two detained extraterrestrials!”

“Detained… Extra…” Niall repeats, sounding out each word as if they’ll make more sense that way.

“Aliens, you b****!” Ben yells at her. Zayn can tell that Louis is planning another seize of the balls right as they speak. “Stop acting so dumb. You know what I’m referring to!”

“That’s it,” Mrs. Payne says. “You do not get to charge into my house unannounced, put your hands on one of my son’s friends, and call another one of them b****es-”

Ben scoffs. “Well one of the extraterrestrials in question was the one you claimed was your ‘son’ so I’d advise you to cooperate so we don't arrest you for lying to government officials as well.” Ben finally lets Louis go. “Aha, there he is right now! Men, get him!”

“NO!” Liam’s parents both scream, heading towards him but being pushed back by the agents. It hurts Zayn’s eyes to look as he sees Liam starting to cry, trying to calm himself by rocking back and forth or playing with his fingers, but every motion he tries to make is stopped by the agents.

“Alright, Ben,” Mr. Payne says angrily, motioning to Ben’s name tag. “You think you’re really smooth, accusing my son of being an extraterrestrial. But I see what’s going on here. You’re just trying to think of an excuse to lock him up when you really can’t stand that he’s disabled.”

Ben just smirks, and Zayn wants to punch it off his smug little face. “No, I know he’s an extraterrestrial because when we were over here, he was obviously uncomfortable with our presence, your wife said he has bad experiences with the police, and oh, right, we caught him building a spaceship.”

Mr. Payne throws his head back laughing, but there’s no humor in it. “Did you know, when he was five years old he completely built an analog clock on his own? He’s been so good with tools from a young age he probably could create a spaceship if he wanted to.”

“Cool fake story, doesn’t change the fact that-”

Louis interrupts, apparently finally deciding enough is enough. “You know we can actually _prove_ that he’s their son, right? It’s this little thing called a birth certificate. Not sure if you’ve heard of it.”

“Okay,” Ben responds, rolling his eyes. “Bring out ‘his’ supposed birth certificate.” Louis looks like he’s considering punching him, but decides to save it for later because he has more important things to do.

“It’s in the folder next to the computer, Louis!” Mrs. Payne – who still hasn’t moved from her position next to the agents ‘handling’ her boy – calls after him.

Louis comes back with the birth certificate in no time, and Ben looks like he’s about to think of more ways to deny this is real, but when he looks at the official signature his eyes bulge out of his head. “Men, let Mr. Liam Payne go please.”

The other agents listen to him, and Liam immediately rushes back over to his mom, not letting her go now. She reaches in her pocket and pulls out that weird looking squishy toy Liam had the other night. Liam takes it gratefully and plays with it while still keeping his arms around her.

“So like,” Louis says now, taking the birth certificate out of Ben’s ugly hands. “If you’re done assaulting my friend for a crime he never committed, you can go now.” He gives him a passive aggressive smile for good measure.

“Uh…” Ben napes his neck awkwardly now, and it’s almost funny how he’s at a loss for words. “Okay but where’s the other kid they were with?”

“What other kid? It’s just the four of them,” Mrs. Payne tells them, but she doesn’t wait for the answer because she’s obviously tired of all this nonsense. “You know what, don’t even answer that question. Get out of my house now!”

Surprisingly that’s all it takes for Ben and his agents to leave the premises. Maybe they all decided they couldn’t handle feeling dumb anymore. Good, Zayn thinks. If they had stayed here much longer, he would’ve joined Louis in kicking them all in the balls. They all probably would have together; even Zayn’s grandparents from the looks on their faces.

After that, all of them sit down at the dining room table and take a few moments to just relax. When a good enough amount of time has passed, and Liam no longer needs his squishy toy, Mr. and Mrs. Payne make all of them a nice lunch.

Now that everything seems to have calmed down, Zayn is struck by how lucky he is to have these people, how lucky they are to have each other, and how brave they all are even in times of danger.

***

Several hours and one rescue of Louis’ car later, Team One Direction are all together again way back in the woods. They’ve all decided it’s best if Harry leaves them now before the CIA can track them down again.

However, even though the group knows this, they’re still taking the longest time possible to finally say goodbye to their alien friend. None of them want to.

Liam looks like he’s having a hard time deciding whether he’s going to miss Harry or the ship more. Louis notices this too.

“Hey Harry,” he says. “What do you say Liam gives this baby one last spin before you spend the next however long riding it through the universe?”

Harry giggles. “Sounds fantastic to me.” With that, Team One Direction blasts off again.

Zayn is just getting comfy in his seat when Harry taps him on the shoulder. “Zayn, can I talk to you?”

He nods and follows them to a room that looks a bit like a bedroom. This is probably where Harry slept all the nights that they were in the woods before they moved to Niall’s treehouse.

For a while, the two of them just stand there awkwardly. Zayn isn’t sure whether Harry expects him to start the conversation or not – whatever conversation this is even supposed to be.

Eventually, after the silence gets too much to bear though, he gives in.

“Well,” Zayn says. “Now that you have a fixed ship, and like two months’ supply of ground coffee, I guess you can… go see the Earth now.” He sniffles, wiping some sweat off his eyes.

“Yeah, I – I guess I can,” they agree. A pause. “But I can’t leave you forever, so I’m going to give you something before I go.”

He isn’t sure what to think as they come closer and then, all at once, kiss his cheek. When the cheek kiss is over though, something still lingers on his cheek.

“I marked you,” they explain. “This way, whenever one of us wants to, we can instantly be next to each other.” He gasps after they say this. “But, only like, if you’re free and not doing anything and like, want to come there. I’m not going to… force you or anything...” Zayn laughs at the way they are over-explaining themself. He appreciates them making sure he knows it’s consensual and stuff.

Zayn brings Harry in for a big hug. “I’m gonna miss you so much.”

“I’m gonna miss you too,” they respond. The two pull back and both are about to start crying, but then Harry cuts that off. “Okay, no crying allowed until I actually leave, okay? Let’s enjoy Liam giving us a ride now.”

Zayn laughs at that. “Okay.” The two of them end up not going back out to the rest of the crew though. Instead they stay in this bedroom, cuddling.

They only know it’s time to go when Louis pounds on the door. “Hey lovebirds! We’re back on the ground. No matter how much you want to keep them to yourself, Zayn, it’s time to give the rest of us a chance to say our goodbyes.”

The two of them laugh and get up, going outside. There’s one last big group hug, and a lot of tears are shed as they watch Harry take off and wave goodbye to them – before activating the invisibility mode.

This really was the best summer of Zayn’s life so far. He hopes that all of them can have a Team One Direction reunion at some point, especially now that Harry will know whenever he’s missing them (and vice versa). Zayn has to admit though, he’s a little freaked out by that because as of now he can’t see a day in the future where he’s _not_ missing them.

But until he can see them again, he prays that they have a safe journey around the Earth and back to their own planet when they decide to go. He looks around at Niall, Louis, and Liam and thanks Allah for bringing these amazing people into his life. He hopes they will continue being friends for a really long time. After all, Zayn’s here every summer. It would be nice to have some friends to talk to during that time.


End file.
